Tuesday, 17 May 2016

In the name of science, Britain must leave the EU

Matt Ridley
This week we become subject to the tobacco products directive, which
contains a disastrous own goal for public health, which will make it
harder for smokers to quit by taking up vaping. It bans advertising of
vaping devices, bans stronger e-cigarette liquids, which are the ones
that heavy smokers need if they are to quit, and it ties up the vaping
industry in red tape so that its product range will drastically shrink.
Public Health England and the Royal College of Physicians both think
this will slow or even reverse the exodus from tobacco.
Why did this happen? Because big pharmaceutical companies lobbied
hard in Brussels in favour of their prescription-medicine alternatives,
patches and gums, while subsidized tobacco growers and the tobacco
industry lobbied hard to have vaping devices included in a tobacco
directive, even though they are not tobacco products."